Moscow-a city under siege by hardcore Communists
threatening to plunge the country back into Stalinist
darkness. Into the heart of the firestorm, American
ambassador Stephen Metcalf has been summoned to find the
one man who controls the levers of power in absolute
secrecy-an official known only as the Dirizhor. His
support of the bloody coup will bring the entire world to
the brink of nuclear war. Metcalfe is the only man with
the cunning to reach him and to convince him to resist.
It's up to Metcalf to change the course of history. He's
done it before. For Metcalf, returning to Russia is also a
personal mission that will stretch across three continents
and fifty years into his past where the loyalties of a
former love-a woman both impossibly beautiful and possibly
treacherous-were tested; where the shadow of a Nazi
assassin still haunts; a debauched German aristocrat
manipulated the destiny of everyone he touched. Now, as
past and present converge, Metcalf braces himself for a
new trial of trust and betrayal, one with chilling
implications that could threaten what remains of the free
world.